Tianjin University researchers integrate art with VR movie

Half-Hundred Mirrors, a Chinese mainland movie using 3D immersive virtual reality technology, has been selected to be screened in the VR Theater at the prestigious 24th Busan International Film Festival, one of the world’s foremost movie gala events since it started in 1996.

Doctor Han Dong from Tianjin University, the chief technical director, led his team and developed the VR technology for the film. The film was directed by Yu Hong, an artist and college professor from the Department of Oil Painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Half-Hundred Mirrors is a VR film with a storyline inspired by Professor Yu Hong’s series of 32 paintings which shows a girl’s life from birth to childhood and eventually towards maturity.

It is the only Chinese mainland film that has made its way to the Busan festival’s VR Theater Session -- along with 40 other films from 12 countries and regions including the US, Japan, Canada, England and South Korea.

In the film, Tianjin University team integrates art with technology.

It took Han Dong’s team half a year to finish the film in which they employed advanced technologies such as digital collecting, computer graphic modeling, VR engine and human-computer interaction (HRI). Critics say while retaining the original characters and even brush strokes of the paintings, the film recounts its stories employing 3D models accompanied by animation, visuals and sound effects in a luminous environment -- transforming the static paintings into a VR film that is immersive and interactive. They say it is an innovative way to integrate art and VR technology.

In a VR film, a three-dimensional environment is generated using a computer system and the transducer technology.

A brand-new way of human-computer interaction can be created in such an environment, which can simulate human senses including vision, auditory sensations and tactile senses so as to immerse the audience in a virtual world.

As a result, a viewer is able to a 360 degree look around when he “walks into” the movie scene. Experts say that as internet speeds get faster and VR hardware applications become more universal, greater progress will be made in VR filmmaking to achieve a truly immersive viewing experience for the viewers. Han Dong and his team has long been devoted to research into museum digital displays, VR and AR interactive content. The film Half-Hundred Mirrors is a meaningful exploration for them in digital media art.